A Happy Flashback is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a Flashback to a happy time in a character's past. Frequently they have a drastically different color palette from the rest of the film/tv show in keeping with most Flashbacks. It'll be very bright, warm and colorful (possibly even supersaturated with color) or almost completely white from the brightness, or in simple sepia tones with blurriness added. Then again, it might be drawn in crayon to really invoke the "good old days" feel.

The Happy Flashback is often used as a mood counterpoint in a scene that is decidedly dark. It especially helps when the entire story is very sad or even tragic because it provides a "breather" for the audience and helps avoid Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy. It's similar to comic relief, with the benefit of adding Back Story and helping to breathe some hope back into a character or plot. The emotional counterpoint is especially useful for storytellers since it serves to show that the character(s) aren't walking bags of Angst, they can feel other emotions and the pain they feel now is all the more keen because they once were happy.

Examples:

Bleach: Sui-Feng has one, during her fight with her sempai/possible love interest, Yoruichi. During their time together, we see a younger, happier Sui-Feng. Until Yoruichi betrayed her trust and devotion by running off with Urahara Kisuke. Which caused Sui-Feng to become bitter and angry; for which the fans dubbed her "Captain Bitch-Ninja".

This happens twice in Chrono Crusade, both times leading into a Troubled Backstory Flashback. Early in the series there's a flashback that shows Rosette's childhood with her brother, Joshua, as well-taken care of orphans who spend their days picnicking and playing before Joshua is kidnapped by the Big Bad. The second time it happens is when Chrono flashes back to when he met Mary Magdalene, whom he fell in love with but accidentally killed when he made a contract with her after he betrayed Aion. In the manga version, Rosette even wonders to herself if Chrono attempts to go back to those happy memories in his dreams.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny dedicates an episode to establishing Shinn's carefree civilian life in Orb and how he really wasn't interested in politics and war, featuring one of these...followed immediately with the Battle of Orb.

Axis Powers Hetalia has a one of these in another flashback. The viewer briefly gets a glimpse of America's childhood, with England taking the younger nation's hand and them going home together. It serves to contrast the current situation with how happy they used to be.

In the Robin Series and Batgirl 2009 crossover, Red Robin gets a couple of himself and Batgirl. Just as an assassin named Prudence, who's life he saved, and who he neglected to immediately incapacitate, is pointing a gun at Batgirl's head and saying she was ordered to kill her. The flashbacks include a nice one with a pink background of him and Stephanie kissing, and Tim blaming himself for getting someone else killed. Of course, Bat-Steph then proceeds to hand Prudence her ass, so the tragic contrast is subverted two seconds later.

"To Absent Friends": Eleya remembers her, T'Var, Birail, and Tess going on vacation at the beach and somehow getting onto the subject of sex and of how T'Var is apparently a virgin. When queried by Gaarra, Eleya insists that she has absolutely no idea how they got on the subject. Tess theorizes:

“Some combination of booze and the natural tendency of soldiers to turn roughly anything sexual if you leave them alone long enough.”

This happens twice in Batman Begins, with Bruce Wayne reflecting on times with his father in at least two separate scenes from the movie. The first is long before Bruce takes on the Batman identity, when he is planning to take revenge against the murderer of his parents. The second is after the climax of the movie, in the second-last scene of it. This is done to contrast the attitude Bruce had at the former time with that he had at the latter time. The first leads into a Troubled Backstory Flashback.

In Pandorum, Bower has happy flashbacks to his life with his wife back on Earth. Subverted when it turns out that she left him and stayed on Earth which disappeared.

The Road contains a few flashbacks to the pre-apocalyptic family life of the protagonists.

(Please confirm) Happens in Shutter Island. Some of the flashbacks have a more surreal, symbolic value and far from all of them are happy (but some are).

Part II ends with a somewhat happy scene showing the Corleone family sitting around the dinner table, as Michael tells them he is joining the Marine Corps and going off to fight in World War II. This represents the end of the happier, together times in the Corleone family's life, and Michael's transition to the lonely, ruthless man we see him as at the end. This is counterpointed by the final shot of Michael sitting alone in the Lake Tahoe compound.

The final scene of the saga is preceded by a montage reprising Michael's happy moments with the women of his life.

Shallow Grave ends with one flatmate dead, another stabbed and uncertain about his fate and a third discovering they've been cheated out of the loot. Cue Happy Heart rolling over a repeated sequence of the three flatmates earlier in the movie, laughing and hugging. Wham.

In X-Men: Days of Future Past, 1973 Charles briefly reminisces about the first time he met Raven, which was a much happier and more innocent period of his life than his current state of abject misery and self-destruction. One notable difference between his memory of the event and what we saw in First Class is that Charles as a kid never said, "And that's a promise" right after he told Raven that she would never have to steal again.

Sakasama no Patema: About 2/3 into the film, Patema finds a notebook belonging to Age's father, while they're stranded on the ceiling structure in the "sky". While Age reads through it, the audience is treated to a flashback sequence which showed how Age's father met and befriended Lagos. The two spent their time together sharing information from their societies, while jointly working on a flying machine to explore the sky. The final entry is a scribbled note summing up their elation: "We are alive". Which becomes a downer, since his father and Lagos were both killed by the Agian government, as a result, under Izamura's orders.

In Stephen King's Firestarter this happens when the protagonist suddenly discovers the dead body of his wife. The feel of emotional pain is in contrast with the memories of their happy life together which start popping up in his mind at that moment.

Sansa: "She had last seen snow the day she’d left Winterfell. That was a lighter fall than this, she remembered. Robb had melting flakes in his hair when he hugged me, and the snowball Arya tried to make kept coming apart in her hands. It hurt to remember how happy she had been that morning."

Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves frequently flashes back to moments from Rasmus' and Benjamin's childhoods, often playing in contrast to the tragic things that are happening to them in the present.

In Smallville, Abyss, Chloe starts to forget everything due to Brainiac's interference. She is rushed to a hospital in which the doctor tells her to focus on her happiest memories while they scan her brain. They are all intimate moments with Clark. Including their First Kiss. Aww.

Jericho, in a decidedly dark episode about a war with nearby town New Bern, has multiple flashbacks from Jake to the day of his brother's wedding.

In Monk, all of his flashbacks with his wife Trudy. Averted with his childhood memories, which are awful.

In The X-Files episode "Piper Maru", Scully is grieving for her murdered sister Melissa. Coincidentally, she goes to visit her old father's colleague at the naval station where the Scullys used to live. At one moment as she's driving, she sees kids playing outside, especially two girls playing hopscotch. She flashes back and she sees herself and her sister playing the same game.

In Elementary episode "Déja Vu All Over Again" we see Watson's life before she met Sherlock Holmes. She is happy, laughing and hanging out with her friends. When the scene moves to current time, we see her breaking into cars with Alfredo. Subverted in that overall, Watson actually enjoys working with Holmes.

Never Wipe Tears Without Gloves frequently flashes back to moments from Rasmus' and Benjamin's childhoods, often playing in contrast to the tragic things that are happening to them in the present.

Rome. Vorenus is having a dream where he's sharing a loving moment in bed with his (deceased) wife Niobe. Suddenly Niobe starts shouting in a foreign language and he wakes up in the squalid room of a bald Egyptian prostitute.

The Musketeers. Whenever Athos returns to Pinon he has flashbacks of his life with Anne (who would become Milady de Winter), including the two of them frolicking in the meadows.

This happens in Final Fantasy VIII. After Selphie's home is destroyed by a missile, the main characters take time to realize that all but one of them grew up in the same orphanage. Although this is a plot-heavy part of the game, the flashbacks are generally happy, with comforting music playing while they happen.

Webcomics

In Blue Yonder, Jared remembers fighting as part of the family team, and also incidents from his childhood.

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